Meetings, fairs, vernissages and other social gatherings being cancelled, Art players eventually have the time to undertake the digital strategy they have been talking about for so long, but that they never had the chance to actually do. From marketplaces, to e-commerces and website content management systems, there are many alternatives and tools to build a strong online presence. To support you in the different digital actions you can tackle (other than instagram and usual social medias), here is a quick guide:
For the one who wants to take advantage of marketplaces’ features, such as marketing (Podcasts, forums, articles, push notifications…) or the digital product structure, art specialized marketplaces might be a great strategy. Our favourite one are:
Online marketplace, which sells luxury items such as high-end furniture, antiques,fine art and jewelry.It has received praise for restricting its listings to authorized dealers for the sake of authenticity and it has been recognized for "pushing the antiques business into the 21st century."
Online marketplace for galleries, shops, editors, artisans, and designers curated in an inspiring manner with an editorial line.
Artland is a dedicated platform for contemporary art that connects galleries with collectors on a global scale. The app is free to users, but galleries pay a flat subscription rate every month. Collectors can connect with the galleries to negotiate purchases and arrange delivery.
A massive, venture-funded online gallery that sells art from thousands of artists from all over the world. “Artsy’s mission is to make all the world’s art accessible to anyone with an Internet connection. We are a resource for art collecting and education.”
Marketplace dedicated to professional european antique dealers.
Online art price database on which is also a marketplace for art market players to connect and buy or sell their artworks and items.
Online auction platform for buying and selling special items and collectibles. Catawiki has been curating weekly auctions since 2011, across a number of categories such as art, books, model trains, stamps, wine and classic cars. Catawiki's auctions are online-only. Bids are open for all to see.
Connects artists to other artists, buyers, collectors and retailers and makes the exchanges safer by producing a Digital Certificate generated on the blockchain while securating the payment with an integrated payment system.
On Artplode galleries, dealers, artists, and collectors can list art for a low one-off fee of $60 per artwork for advertising. No commission is charged to buyers or sellers. Artworks must be priced at $1000+ to be offered for sale on Artplode.
The world’s largest auction site. Follow @ebayart on Twitter to get a good idea of what kind of art performs well on Ebay.
Saatchi Art is an online art marketplace through which artists can sell both prints and originals. It’s free to sign up to sell, and Saatchi handles shipping- the artist pays for the packaging. Saatchi takes a 35% commission on each piece sold. Artists of all mediums can sell on Saatchi, and can even use the platform to offer commissions.
Is a curated online art gallery that provides digital sales tools for their artists and handles all payment, insurance, shipping, and delivery. Artists must apply to join Singulart, and they favor artists who already have some level of recognition.
If you are an artist or a designer, you can choose to be represented by an online gallery. Below are some we recommend:
Online art gallery that sources european artists to get a digital vitrine and get customers purchasing in their studio directly
High luxury platform that sells made-to-order pieces by top designers, architects, and craftsmen with a growing roster of industry-leading designers who preserve the standards set by legendary talents.
Online gallery which offers a display window and a selling platform for the finest artists, designers and brands around the globe that are engaging playfully with their methods of productions.
To avoid being dependent on third parties and pay extra fees there are now many alternatives to build your Online gallery without the need of a developper.Below is our selection:
Squarespace offers a free trial and extensive documentation. They make building a website very easy. Among artists surveyed in 2018 by the abundant artists website, nearly a quarter of them preferred Squarespace for creating their website.To note [the
Offers a course that will help you plan your website and gather your branding and marketing materials in preparation for building.
Wix offers an excellent drag-and-drop site builder to create small websites. There are 100s of free templates available. Wix provides its own web hosting as well as domain names (free and paid). The App Market makes it easy to add extra functionality such as photo galleries, videos or ecommerce...
Website builder designed for private and corporate users to create websites easily. It has an online store builder that enables you to transform it into an ecommerce site to start selling products and processing sales transactions.
WordPress is an online, open source website creation tool and probably the easiest and most powerful blogging and website content management system (or CMS). WordPress.com is easy to use and inexpensive, however, there is a steep learning curve (can get a bit complicated as you want more features…). This leads us to believe that many WordPress.com users are more tech savvy than the average user.
Shopify offers arguably the most powerful eCommerce experience on the web. They also integrate with nearly every third party marketing tool available (More information here).
FASO has been around for a long time, with a customer satisfaction rating of 4.62 out of 5, largely because of their origins Their templates are designed for artists and they have artists staffing their support lines. The downside is their templates can be inflexible and don’t connect well with third party services.
ArtStoreFronts.com is a newcomer to the website building space. They originally positioned themselves as a way for artists to sell prints on demand, but have changed to being a full service eCommerce platform for artists.
Digital tool developed by the marketplace Artland (see above) to create a 3D viewing room opr an exhibition/space. It can help galleries to present a show more sophisticated and immersive- hence a “better online experience”
An extended-reality platform that will (launched in April) that enables galleries to create virtual versions of their own spaces. It consists of two complimentary augmented and virtual reality apps, Vortic Curate, a subscription-based program that helps galleries to build their own virtual exhibitions and Vortic VR to experience virtual exhibitions in 3-D via their Oculus headsets.